Luang Prabang, Laos

Friday 1^st Nov.

Now after 3 days of busrides, we needed to do absolutely nothing… So nice.  But still we had to find a new place to stay, we ended up at Mojo’s Guesthouse, very centered, clean & quiet – a bit more expensive 100.000 kip (ca. 70 kr.) a day for a db. room with toilet/shower. After checking in, we just slendered around the town, with our thoughts still on the last 3 awful days. We talked about buying a motorbike, so we could do the journey by ourselves, and avoid all that public transportation, which is driving us crazy.

We stopped by a motorbike shop, owned by an australian guy, he told us all the rules that we should be aware of, and also told us that he was actually waiting for a guy to drop by, with a bike he needed to sell, registrated in Cambodia.

Well, we decided to discuss all these new inputs, over a bottle of Lao vodka – the expensive vodka was 20.000 kip (ca. 14 kr.), the cheap one was 15.000 kip. If we had bought the cheap vodka, the juice would have been more expensive than the vodka, that’s really crazy. We filled my empty water bottle with icecubes, that we begged for at a restaurant, and then off to a little riverside harbour, to watch the sunset. We felt like teenagers, sitting there sipping vodka/juice.

After watching the sunset and some writing on our blog, we went to the everyday night market, in the middle of the town, here we met 2 danish girls (Pernille & Frederikke), that we already met 2 nights before in Phonsavan – they joined us, and we ended up at a restaurant, buying really good fruit shakes for 6-10000 kip each, and then in best teenage manners, we added our own vodka underneath the table.

We ended at a really nice place, called Lao Lao Garden (definitely worth a visit), here we met an american couple (Alizabeth & Derek) from Aspen, after introducing ourselves we started up with a “shotgun” beer – in best Cat Ba boattrip/Jack style. A great and funny night out. 

A everyday sight

Cosy restaurant by the river

Vodka-juice...

 Saturday 2^nd Nov.

We slept in after our crazy night out, we found this nice hangover-paradise-restaurant, called Utopia, where we got a good american breakfast. Via facebook we realized, that Friday had been the release day of the christmas beer (in Denmark), so we couldn’t have picked a better day to get drunk, and didn’t feel guilty for our hangovers anymore.  But with hangovers in these countrys, it’s really not fun to be alive, because of the heat, the best and only place you wanna stay, is in your room, with the a/c on.

So we went back home, Lisbeth made some more blog writing, and my stomach was starting to give me problems, probably because of all the alcohol the day before… In the afternoon, while I was just feeling sorry for myself, Lisbeth got rid of her hangovers earlier, and went for a 5 km. jog – in 30 degrees…

Utopia bar & restaurant

Local fisherman

Utopia (worth a visit and don't wait to the last day you're in Luang Prabang)

Sunday 3^rd Nov.

Got up very early, to see the monks getting alms, from the local people, this has been a very big tourist attraction in Luang Prabang, even though it started long time before the tourists came to the town.
This tradition is as a morning ritual (at dawn), where monks silently line the streets, while locals (and interested tourists) put gifts of food, into the bowls carried by the monks.
On our way back, we found a nice little food market for the local people.

Still considering buying a motorbike!! We visited the motorbike guy again for a chat, and also rented one, and drove to the nice “Kuangsi Waterfall”, 26 km. south/west of Luang Prabang.

This was really an amazing place, they also had a big reserve of Asian black bears.

We could swim in several places in the waterfall, we preferred to be by ourselves, with no tourist noise, so we followed the trail, that no one else did, and found a small hole in the jungle, where we could swim. Lisbeth was 100% sure, that an animal bit her leg, when she entered the turquish water the first time, but after I convinced her, that sharks only lives in saltwater, she was fine.

At the biggest “pool”, there was a rope swing, into the water, it was also possible to jump from one of the waterfalls. I dared Lisbeth to do the swing, and eventually she did it – actually twice!

I tried the waterfall jump as well.  

After the nice motorbike ride back home, we drove a little around in the town, and went to the night market again.

Enough rice for the next couple of days

Locals morning market

Grilled fish for breakfast around 7 in the morning.. Thanks for the offer but no thanks!!

Crabs ready to take home

Cow stomach, on almost clean wodden table

The girl is actually sitting on a small chair ON the table, with her old, dirty, nasty feets, right next to the rare meat.. Yummi..

Delicious fresh blood from either buffalo, pig or who knows.....?

Brilliant coconut pancake - was very good and tasteful

One of the many unsafe bridges we crossed

And one of the many holes on the roads 

Kuangsi Waterfall

Video from Luang Prabang

Monday 4^th Nov.

Another lazy day, got up late, and went to “Utopia” for brunch again – we’re really enjoying this lifestyle, everybody should do something like this in their life, it’s really inspiring to see how they live, on the other side of the Earth, especially compared to the european lifestyle. It’s like travelling back into the history books (that we never read).

Well we didn’t really do a lot this day, I learned to sew. Every time we visit a new country, we buy a flag, or something similar, to put on our backpacks – but apparently Lisbeth doesn’t agree, that she has to sew them on both her own, and my backpack.

We found a nice café to hang out in, and while I did the sewing, Lisbeth did some research… Suddenly the american couple from friday walked by, and we ended up having a drink with them, and decided to share a bottle of vodka, and watch the sunset together.

Me and Derek went to by the vodka, which was just next door to the motorbike shop, when we arrived there, the motorbike guy that we talked to several times now, was outside with the guy american guy, that was desperate to sell his motorbike (registrated  in Cambodia), so we chatted for a while, and I took the bike for a test drive, this made me fall in love with it, because even that it was pretty big ( Honda XR 250cc Baja, dirt bike), it was very easy to drive. Eventually the girls also came, because we were taking too long, we agreed that we would give the guy a call within the next couple of days, if we were interested in buying.

Well now we missed the sunset, but we still had our vodka, so we enjoyed that next to the river, while arranging to meet up later, cause they had to go home pack, to be ready to leave the next morning, meanwhile Lisbeth and I went for a walk, and had one more look through the night market.

The night ended up with “shotguns”, good  barbecue and pool – overall, again a fun and crazy night out!

Our decorated bags

Derek and me playing with a local kid

 Tuesday 5^th Nov.

There they were again – the hangovers, so we took it totally easy… Didn’t do anything special, just relaxing and taking care of our hangovers! Ohh, we actually got 1 hour oil massage, which was 50000 Kip each (35kr.) We agreed not to buy the bike, cause we weren’t completely sure of the border crossing rules, and we wouldn’t be happy to find ourselves at the vietnamese border, unable to bring our newly bought motorbike with us. Now after 6 days in Luang Prabang, and only been active one day (beside the nights out), we were really starting to feel bad , by doing nothing, this was too much relaxing, so we decided to leave the next morning to Vang Vieng. Now we needed to quit the relaxation for a bit, and go seeing/trying some things. We booked a minibus to Vang Vieng, for the following day.

One of the many temples

Mainstreet in Luang Prabang

Nice and neat massage spot, perfect for hangovers!!

This is how they cover themselves up, in order not to get a sun tan. This is a status symbol, that shows that they don't have to work outside (like it was in Dk around 50 years ago).